Fishing
by Ash888
Summary: The first in a series of fun little one-shots which happen several years before the events of the show. I intend to incorporate these into my longer fic (The Faceless Wolf) at some point as memories or dreams, but I thought they would make a series of fun shorts too. A six year old Arya tags along on fishing trip with her brothers Robb and Jon.


**~:Fishing:~**

Arya was happy to to have finished her needlework lessons for the morning, they were so boring yet Sansa seemed to really enjoy them for some reason. Maybe it was because she was so much better than Arya at it? Sansa was always better than Arya at doing ladylike things like sewing and dancing, but Arya was the better rider and much better at maths.

Arya wasn't too fussed though, she had only been learning needlework for a few weeks and was sure that she would improve with enough practice.

She walked down the stone steps of the tower holding her doll by its arm in her left hand and stepped out into the castle yard to see Robb and Jon talking. She smiled and waved at them before running over to them. "Where are you going? Can I come too?" She asked Jon, looking up at him. She knew that he was more likely to let her tag along than Robb. She loved Robb to bits, but she felt closer to Jon than any of her siblings.

Robb looked down at her and chuckled at her enthusiasm. "We're going to try and catch some trout, you can't come little sister."

Jon smiled at her apologetically, going along with Robb.

"Aww, but why not? I can catch a fish too." She continued, hoping he that would change his mind. "How hard can it be?"

"I'm sorry Arya, you're only six, you're not really allowed out of the castle yet." Robb replied hoping that she would listen, which she never did.

Arya frowned before holding Jon's hand tightly with her right hand. "I'll be a good girl I promise." She smiled up sweetly at Robb, hoping that he wouldn't refuse.

Jon looked at Robb and Robb sighed in resignation. "Fine, you can come. But you must stay close and behave or I'll tell mother." Robb said as he finally gave in to her.

Arya giggled happily and held Jon's hand as they walked down to the river. _'Maybe I can find some rubies too' _She thought to herself.

"You're walking too fast" She complained after just a few minutes. Arya was small for her age and a lot smaller than her older brothers and struggled to keep up with them. Her legs were short and skinny and they ached. "You'll have to carry me." She smiled up sweetly at Jon, hoping that he would give her a piggyback.

"I'll carry you if you don't hold on too tight, I nearly choked last time."Jone replied as he crouched down for her.

Arya smiled at him before climbing up onto his back, wrapping her skinny arms loosely around his neck.

Jon groaned as he stood, much to Robb's amusement. "You getting heavy little sister, I think you must be growing at last." Jon said as he started walking again.

"Really? Do you think so? Maybe I grew a little?" She smiled happily, hoping that she would grow even more. "Maybe I'll be as tall as Sansa and then she won't try to boss me around any more."

Jon and Robb both chuckled at her.

Eventually they made it to the river and Arya hopped off Jon's back to look around. Robb and Jon started to set up the fishing gear as she threw flat stones into the river. She was hoping to make them skip like her father had shown her, but they mostly went straight into the water with a big splash.

"You're going to scare off all of the fish." Jon told her as he took her hand and led her away from the riverbank to sit down and watch as they finished setting up the fishing gear.

When they had set everything up she helped them to look for bait. She kicked over a few rocks and sticks to find lots of insects. Sansa would have hated it, but Arya wasn't afraid of insects. She had even eaten one once just to see her sister's horrified reaction.

They didn't have enough gear for Arya to fish on her own, but Jon let Arya have a go of his for a little while. She didn't catch anything though and soon got bored. "I'm going to look for rubies." She told her brothers. "Fishing is boring!"

"Stay where we can see you." Robb told her.

"If you wander off you can't come next time." Jon added.

"And _try_ to stay clean or mother will have all our hides!" Robb said, more out of hope than anything.

Arya smiled and nodded. "I will, I promise." She then turned and walked away from them, but stayed in sight as she had promised. She knelt by the edge of the river and started to poke around in the rocks and mud with a stick as she searched for rubies.

Arya searched for the rest of the afternoon but didn't find any rubies or anything valuable. She did find a smooth grey and white stripey rock, the Stark colors, which she decided to keep.

"Maybe it's a lucky rock?" Robb told her as he gave her a piggback ride on their way back to Winterfell. Arya smiled happily, pleased with her new treasure.


End file.
